The Garden Glamour blog is the "little black dress" for gardeners. The "must read" postings will offer garden stories about gardening’s best practices including when to plant, put the garden to bed, pruning, color in the garden; garden tips; advice on what tools work best; garden design; opinions on garden trends; garden book reviews; garden lecture review snapshots; lots and lots of images, and funny, insouciant anecdotes about the humbling, glorious and glamorous world of Gardens!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Garlic Wards Off Vampires. And Other Allium Health Benefits

Last weekend the garlic (allium sativum), onions, and shallots,
were planted in our home farm-ette.

My garden nomenclature defines “farm-ette” as bigger than a
typical home garden and with more variety than a typical home garden comprised of
tomatoes, basil and a few other herbs.

And of special note is the Ground Cherry tomato, P. pruinosa – that grows in their own kind of a sexy
scarf!

The fruit grows inside a
paper-like husk – not unlike the bigger tomatillo.

I learned that these tart-sweet berries were
used by the Pilgrims to make excellent pies, jams and preserves.

I pop them, straight-away, fresh, into salads
and into my waiting mouth!

Garlic

This year’s garlic monikers are too sweet not to share.

The names are flirty and cute.

One of the garlic varieties we planted is Music – how much do you love that?!

Another is Duganski. Sounds like the guy at the corner end of
the tavern bar! And then there is the exotic, cinema-sounding “Indochine”
sounding IncheliumRed Garlic.

Together with the Dutch yellow shallots the close to a
hundred allium herb bulbs, split into their cloves and put to sleep for the
winter in the prepared soil of our farm-ette.

There truly is nothing like homegrown garlic, I have to
say.

It is so sweet, juicy, light and spirited that I can eat it
raw--with abandon.

Recently, I noted a food memory from my high school boyfriend,
Thom’s grandfather – a Sicilian. At that time, I was horrified to see him take a garlic
clove from the kitchen table’s fruit bowl.

In my house that bowl was stocked with standard-issue apples
or oranges or pears, depending on the season.

But Thom’s grandfather, schooled in the Italian way, could
pick up a clove of garlic and just bite into it -- like an apple.

But now, I understand that flavor attraction. I am in total simpatico.

I revere the homegrown garlic so much that I now offer it as a hostess gift to some of my lucky dinner guests.

I present the garlic nestled into pretty-colored tissue paper tucked into a happy gift bag.

Some gift recipients appear somewhat startled to learn I gave them a garlic.

But later, they can't help but thank me, telling me what a delicious treat it is. It's a gift that keeps giving!

I had been struggling a bit to describe the texture of a
fresh, homegrown garlic when Chef Joe Isidori, a featured chef in my book: The
Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook, from Southfork Kitchen
and his newest restaurant, Brooklyn's Arthur on Smith, told the guests at a recent book
singing event at the New York City Rizzoli Bookstore event.

He said his homegrown garlic is like a water chestnut.

"That’s it," I squealed in agreement!

Yes, the texture of homegrown garlic s akin to a water
chestnut because it shares the characteristics of crunchy, juicy and light and
flavorful.

Homegrown garlic is nothing like the overbearing, petulant
garlic that most are accustomed to. And that lingers on the breath and the
clothes for far too long.

Not so for homegrown garlic.

Homegrown garlic is a refreshing, healthy addiction.

Did you know that?

·Garlic can ward off vampires!

·Garlic is rich in antioxidants which help
destroy free radicals

·Garlic is used to prevent heart disease,
including atherosclerosis, high cholestral, high blood pressure
and boosts the
immune system.

·Garlic may also protect against cancer

·Garlic may help prevent the common cold

·Gravediggers in 18th Century France
drank crushed garlic in wine, believing it would protect them
from the plague.

·World War I & II soldiers were given garlic
to prevent gangrene.

·China is the world’s largest producer of garlic,
followed by India

·Egyptians fed it to the workers as they built
the pyramids

·Alliums are beautiful plants with puffy
Afro-like heads on a slender tall reed

About Me

Leeann's first
book: "The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook" is
available now. "New York City Homegrown Cookbook" to follow.

Leeann has
worked in restaurants and food catering and cooks with passion, using food ingredients
from local NYC Greenmarkets and her herb and farm-ette in the Garden State.

She writes a
Food & Drink column for Examiner.com, curating the food spectrum that
dazzles and elevates the radical New York food world.

She writes two
blogs. "Master Chefs and their Gardens" chronicles the making of the
book, "The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook," as well as
the nexus of garden art and culinary art, food events, lectures, Greenmarkets,
growers, cookbook reviews, and food stories. "Garden Glamour" is the
little black dress for gardeners, highlighting best practices, lectures, garden
book reviews, romantic and glamorous gardens and insouciant anecdotes about the
humbling world of gardening.

Leeann
contributed the chapter Public Relations and Marketing Communications to the
successful "Public Garden Management: A Complete Guide to the Planning and
Administration of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta."

Garden
Specialist and principal of Duchess Designs, LLC, Leeann designs artful,
sustainable gardens that tell stories & are endlessly beguiling--in every
season. Leeann received a Certificate in Landscape Design from The New York
Botanical Garden. She worked at NYBG and was Director of Communications,
Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Leeann is an award-winning landscape designer, earning
top honors in the first Broadway in Bloom contest. Two Duchess Designs gardens
are featured in "Cottages and Mansions of the Jersey Shore." Several
garden designs are highlighted in NJ Design magazine. Leeann has served as
judge for the Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest and the New Jersey Flower and
Garden Show. Leeann is a member of MetroHort Group, The Garden Writer's
Association, The Horticultural Society of NY, and The Garden Conservancy.
Leeann designed The Garden Pendant Collection. She's written garden book
reviews for The Two River Times and the Wall Street Journal. Leeann nurtures a
small rooftop garden at her home in Gotham, and herb, edible and display
gardens at her Garden State home.